Originally Posted by That Guy 74

You are comparing apples and oranges.

Southwest is like a regional airline flying 737s. If you want to compare what they do to your QOL at UAL, look at what is going on in only our narrowbody fleets. I just flew with a new F/O who is already a lineholder after 6 months on the 73.

I am just past my third year and hold captain on the 73. I have buddies at Southwest who won't hold captain for a decade.

Now if you want to bring the widebodies into consideration, that's something that you will never have a chance to fly at Southwest. The one thing that United has an advantage over Southwest is the flexibility you have to go to different seats, different types of equipment, and see what works best for you. I don't know how long you have left in your aviation career but 20 or 30 years of just flying the Guppy doesn't sound like much fun, and I am a captain on it and enjoy it.

I don't plan on being a captain on it my whole career.

As an aside, I came over from the 756 fleet and was holding a line at about 1.5 years seniority. I know that has come down a bit recently, but our G line (guarantee of being a lineholder unless you bid reserve) does go up and down monthly depending on what flying is allocated month to month.